Boy with gun appeals

After being suspended from Bastrop High School for four semesters for bringing a gun to school, Pearce T. Frazier's father, Pearce Frazier Sr., pleaded with the Morehouse Parish School Board Monday night to appeal or lessen his son's judgement.

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By Vicki Adams

Bastrop Daily Enterprise - Bastrop, LA

By Vicki Adams

Posted Feb. 14, 2013 at 12:00 PM

By Vicki Adams

Posted Feb. 14, 2013 at 12:00 PM

Bastrop, La

Frazier Jr., of 108 Rosemary Dr., was arrested on Jan. 14 at BHS, after his parents called the school and alerted them their son may possibly be carrying a gun. The school resource officer Lt. Quickman Trotter and Morehouse Parish Sheriff's deputy Eddy Garrett went to the teenager's class and searched him, finding an automatic pistol and a magazine concealed on two different locations.

Frazier Sr. said he couldn't understand why his son had received such negative publicity, while other students who were guilty of the same crime hadn't been scrutinized as much.

“Why would you do this [publicize] to my son like this?” Frazier Sr. asked the school board.

School Board Superintendent Dr. George Noflin answered him by saying “the school board was not responsible for what the Enterprise published.”

One circumstance Pearce Sr. was referring to was the November 28, 2012 Enterprise article on a lock down drill conducted at BHS. Principal Stacy Pullen is quoted saying, “they did find contraband.” It was later learned that what was found in fact were two guns in a student's vehicle on campus.

Delta Jr. High teacher Thelma Tucker said contraband was a word that “camouflaged'” the truth.

“It was never referenced that guns were brought on campus,” Tucker said. “Ongoing disparages of how you treat one child is how you should treat another. I'm not for bringing guns on campus by any means. I just wish they would treat every child equally.”

When Noflin was later asked about his reference toward having no control over the media, he replied, “I don't' have control over them.”

When told that the media printed what it was told to them by credible sources, Noflin answered “I understand that stories can't always be positive. If some people feel we control the media by telling our administrators what to say, I can't change the way people feel.”

Noflin said he understood that people may think the school board controlled the media by telling its administrators what to say.

People are going to feel the way they feel, regardless of what I say,” Noflin said. “Mrs. Pullen's comment may not have been the best term to use. As far as did I have anything to do with Mrs. Pullen's comment, no I did not.”

The board had three choices to vote on concerning Frazier Jr. They could either recant it, keep it or modify it. They voted to modify it, four to three. Instead of being suspended four semesters, he will now only be out two.